Chapter 86: A Way to Stay Warm
Xie Qiang was woken up in the middle of the night by the cold.
Her entire body was nearly frozen stiff, and her skin was terrifyingly chilled. She reached up to touch her forehead and felt like she was on the verge of developing a fever.
Falling ill in a wormhole was clearly going to be agonizing. To prevent her condition from worsening, Xie Qiang braced her arms and struggled to sit up from the stone bed, moving toward the fire.
Hong Que, who was keeping watch at the cave entrance, heard the movement and looked back. Noticing her pale complexion, he paused, walked over, and asked, “Cold?”
“Mm.” Her voice was thick with congestion. She sat on the ground and held her hands toward the fire. “I’ll warm up for a bit.”
Seeing that her lips were white from the cold, Hong Que clicked his tongue, took off his combat jacket, and draped it over her. “High-maintenance.”
The jacket, carrying the youth’s scorching body heat, draped over her and made Xie Qiang feel warmer instantly. She looked at Hong Que’s bare upper body and gave a light cough. “What about you? Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m not as high-maintenance as you,” the red-haired youth snorted.
Xie Qiang couldn’t help but pout. “Even if you wanted to be this high-maintenance, you couldn’t pull it off!”
Hong Que: ?
Why would he want to be high-maintenance! He wasn’t a Guide!
He was about to retort, only to find that Xie Qiang had already hugged her legs, rested her head on her knees, and closed her eyes to sleep.
The dancing firelight reflected on the girl’s fair, delicate face. Her nose rubbed slightly against the fabric of the sleeve, showing a hint of pinkish-white, like a kitten nuzzling for milk. One could easily see her soft, full lips slightly parted—pinker and more tender than the jelly puddings from the most famous dessert shop in the Imperial City. It made one long to press against them, to lick, to bite, to consume…
The fire suddenly made a loud pop, startling the dazed Hong Que. Realizing he was actually reminiscing about the stolen first kiss from that night, the red-haired youth looked away in panic. He reached out and tossed several more mineral chunks into the fire.
Really, how can she still seduce people while she’s asleep!
And this fire—is it burning too bright? It was roasting him!
Hong Que wiped his burning face, got up from the fire, and walked toward Mo Yin’s stone bed.
“Hey, wake up.” He pushed Mo Yin. “Go take your watch.”
Mo Yin sat up, clutching his sword. He cleared his head for a moment and then walked straight toward the fire.
“The watch is at the cave entrance, not at the fire—” Before Hong Que could finish, a large grey wolf emerged from Mo Yin’s body. After nuzzling the sleeping girl, it trotted off toward the cave entrance.
Hong Que: …
The mental spirit and the master were of the same nature—both total lovesick fools.
“Xiao Hong, you definitely don’t like Xie Qiang, right?” Hong Que secretly asked the spirit in his mental sea.
Xiao Hong folded his wings in front of him and tilted his head with a huff: “This one does not like perverts!”
Exactly. He didn’t like this pervert who enjoyed forcibly kissing Sentinels either!
Hong Que lay down on the stone bed with peace of mind and closed his eyes.
Xie Qiang was woken by the cold again.
She sniffled and looked at her light-brain in disbelief; the time showed 2:00 AM.
The temperature in the cave was constantly dropping. The burning minerals were now emitting a ghostly blue light, no longer as warm as they had been in the first half of the night.
She looked beside her and saw that the person on watch had switched to Mo Yin. She slowly leaned over and asked, “Mo Yin, are you cold?”
Mo Yin, who was poking at the fire, shook his head.
“Oh…” As she got closer to Mo Yin, Xie Qiang felt the temperature rise for some reason. She couldn’t help but lean in a few inches closer, sniffling. “I’m a bit cold…”
Mo Yin lowered his eyes. Seeing her reddened nose and pale lips, he frowned slightly as if deep in thought.
“Why aren’t you cold? Is it because of the Sentinel constitution?” Xie Qiang rubbed her cold little hands and asked curiously.
Mo Yin didn’t answer. He simply removed his gloves and wrapped his hands around her icy ones.
A wave of scorching heat surged into her skin. Xie Qiang’s eyes widened in surprise. She looked down at Mo Yin’s fingers, then at the discarded gloves. “Are your gloves that well-insulated?!”
Mo Yin: “…”
Mo Yin placed her hands onto his arm.
The same scorching heat seeped into her palms. Xie Qiang slid her hands up his arm in wonder, discovering that even though he was only wearing a black sleeveless compression shirt, his exposed skin was incredibly hot.
“You don’t have a fever, do you?” Xie Qiang asked worriedly. She reached out to check Mo Yin’s forehead, but his face was no warmer than usual.
Xie Qiang couldn’t help but look at the youth in black with envy. “I’m so jealous. I wish I had this kind of constitution too.”
Mo Yin blinked. Seeing her sniffle again, he stood up and sat down behind her.
His long legs encircled her tucked-up calves, and he reached out his arms to pull her entirely into his embrace, resting his chin on top of her head.
A source of warmth enveloped her back. Xie Qiang froze slightly, feeling a bit shy about Mo Yin’s nearly encompassing sitting posture. But the air outside was simply too cold. After huddling for a while, she lost the will to resist and leaned against the youth’s chest, closing her eyes.
Fine, she couldn’t be stubborn; her health was more important.
But was it her imagination? She felt like the current Mo Yin was becoming gentler and gentler—even proactive in being good to her.
Her eyelids grew heavier. Before she could find an answer, she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, Xie Qiang woke up with an aching back and sore muscles. Not only that, but she hadn’t escaped the chill after all; she had caught a cold.
She sneezed, gloomily biting into a sweet fruit, failing to notice that all the fruit Hong Que had brought back today were the ones she enjoyed yesterday.
“Tsk.” Seeing her sickly state, Hong Que couldn’t help but show his distaste. “You’re too weak. It seems ordinary warming methods won’t work.”
Xie Qiang hummed unhappily through her stuffed nose. “Then what do we do? It’s freezing at night. I’ll probably freeze to death before you find a route out of the wormhole.”
She was exaggerating—after all, the villainess in the novel hadn’t frozen to death—but Xie Qiang truly hated the feeling of being sick and cold.
Hong Que frowned and thought for a while before saying, “Human-to-human warming is the best method. A Sentinel’s body will continuously generate heat in extreme cold. You can use a Sentinel’s body to stay warm.”
He then immediately added, “But don’t even think about letting me warm you!”
Xie Qiang pouted and muttered, “Who wanted you to warm me anyway? So narcissistic.”
Hong Que gave her a look that said he had seen right through her. “You’d better not!”
Xie Qiang didn’t want to deal with him. She turned to Mo Yin. Although she knew he would agree as long as she gave the order, she still asked politely, “Mo Yin, can you hold me while we sleep tonight?”
Mo Yin glanced at Hong Que, then nodded to Xie Qiang.
“See? Mo Yin isn’t as stingy as you.” Xie Qiang stuck her tongue out at Hong Que, but then she couldn’t suppress a cough. She covered her mouth and coughed a few more times. “Cough, cough-cough.”
“Even being sick can’t shut your mouth!” Hong Que rolled his eyes and tossed several mineral fragments into the fire. Remembering something, he gave her a stern warning. “I’m warning you, Mo Yin and I share a connection. You’d better not suddenly start doing bad things to Mo Yin while you’re asleep!”
Xie Qiang: ???
What “bad things” could she possibly do?!
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